Miscued
by Arialene
Summary: {Complete} Modern AU one-shot. An Actress and a Make-up artist working together for months on the set, each devoted to their work and talent to make the movie a success, decide to have drinks together one Friday night after a long day on the sound stage and find out a thing or two about each other. Will it be success, or disaster?


_Another prompt one-shot, Modern AU again (because I just CAN'T do anything that isn't Frostbitten otherwise, I'm sorry). This time the prompt was simply an actor/actress and their make-up artist, so this is what I came up with. I hope you enjoy! Please let me know what you think. Love! Aria_

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Elsa worked her way across the set lot, smiling sleepily at a pair of stuntmen and a woman carrying sound cables as she made her way to her makeup trailer. The sun wasn't even up yet as she yawned, clutching her coffee cup tightly in one hand and the top of her zip up sweatshirt with the other. She hissed against a strong gust of cold morning air that swept up, stinging her face as she hurried up the steps to the trailer and yanked the door open, sighing as she stepped inside the warm interior with it's bright florescent lighting.

"Good morning!" came a cheery male voice.

She glanced up, smiling sleepily at her makeup artist, Jack. The man was tall and lean, with styled blonde hair and was currently mixing a batch of paint in a dark container. He pulled the stirring stick up, looking at the paint color before adding more of a pigment and stirred some more.

"Jack," she moaned, taking a few heavy steps forward and flopping down into the makeup chair. "Why did you schedule a 4am makeup? Did I offend you in some heinous way?"

He chuckled, grinning as he kept an eye on his paint.

"You didn't get much sleep I take it then, eh princess?"

She made a noncommittal noise as she took a long drink from her coffee. "I didn't even KNOW until almost midnight when Christie gave me my schedule. Seriously, 4am. WHY?"

He quirked a brow. "They didn't tell you?"

She shook her head. "No, just said makeup at 4."

"Figures, make me the bearer of bad news. Don't shoot the messenger, alright? They are reshooting part of your entrance scene, so full makeup."

"Are you serious?"

He held up one of his hands in an innocent gesture. "I thought they would have told you. I guess one of the guys from editing was looking through what they had already shot and wanted some more angles."

She rolled her eyes. "THIS is why I hate science fiction movies."

"Aww, come on now. You don't mean that. Your costume is awesome, I work hard making you look amazing."

She smirked at him. "I'll be more appreciative when I've had more than 4 hours of sleep," she said, yawning widely. "I was up talking to my sister, thinking I didn't need to be here until 7."

He set the container down, apparently satisfied with what he had mixed up, and stepped over to her side. He opened a drawer, pulling out a white tube of ointment and twisted the top off.

"Yeah, you look like you only got 4 hours of sleep too."

"Hey!"

"What, just being honest here."

She scowled. "Is that your miracle cream for my eyes?"

"Yep."

"You should tell me what that stuff is, it does wonders for the bags under my eyes."

"I know, I have to use it far too often when you stay up too late talking to your sister," he said, dabbing small amounts of the cream under her eyes and carefully rubbing it in.

"She's... talkative," she said.

"I surmised as much," he said, leaning back to look at his handiwork before dabbing more under her eyes.

"So, what is it?" she asked, looking up at the ceiling as he worked the cream in.

"Preparation H."

She stiffened, her eyes coming down to meet his. "What?"

He shrugged, standing up straight. "Yeah, that's all it is. Works pretty good."

He grinned at her, twisting the top back on the tube and tossing it back in the drawer, picking up a tissue to wipe his hands on.

"Can you put your contacts in while I finish getting my airbrush ready? Did you wear something under that sweatshirt or do I need to grab something for you?"

"I need something, I didn't know I was going full costume today. Do you have anything?" she asked, leaning forward in her chair and opening another drawer, pulling out the small contact container with her name written in Jack's careful script.

"Four months we've been on this set and you still have to ask if I have something?" he asked, walking to the furthest part of the small trailer and rummaged around in a box. He turned and tossed a tank top to her, snorting as it unfolded in the air and fell over her head.

"Sorry," he said, kicking the box back into place.

"How do you have all of these?" she asked, unzipping her sweatshirt and leaning forward to shrug out of it. "Do you steal them from unclaimed luggage?"

He laughed as he worked with the airbrushing equipment, testing out the brush on the back of his hand a few times to check the airflow and paint consistency.

"No, I don't steal them. I buy them with the rest of my supplies, it's easier than making people go change. Especially grumpy actresses at 4 in the morning."

He paused, eyeing her worn oversized shirt that she wore underneath the sweatshirt and raised a brow at her.

"Don't you even start," she warned. "My plan was to get up, come in here and ask why the hell I had a 4 am makeup, then go back to bed."

"And the coffee?"

"The coffee was a backup plan," she said, pulling the oversized shirt off and tucking it behind her before pulling on the tank. "Seriously though, full makeup?"

"That's the word I got last night was to pull all your pieces and give you the works this morning," he said, opening a few more drawers and removing items before fastening a black work belt around his waist, makeup brushes and various other beauty items sticking out of the various pockets as she fit the contacts into her eyes.

He stood behind her, waiting for her to finish as she squeezed her eyes shut against the foreign objects on her eyes before cautiously opening them to show impossibly large, and impossibly blue eyes. Glamour contacts working their magic.

She shook her head a little, trying to clear her vision. "Ugh, I hate these things. I can't ever get used to them."

He smiled, pulling the hair tie that she had twisted her blonde hair up into and tossing it onto the counter, pulling a brush from a pocket and beginning to to quickly brush out her hair. She closed her eyes again, this time in contentment.

"Have I ever said how much I love having my hair brushed?"

"Only ever time I have to put a bald cap on on you," he said, quickly making his way through her tresses, parting it in the middle and pausing to dig in his work belt. He pulled out several bobby pins, sticking them in his mouth and then turned back to her hair, quickly parting and braiding it tightly to her scalp.

"How did you get so good at hair? Did you go to hair school? I can't believe I never asked you that," she said, bending her head down when he pushed at the back of her head.

He chuckled again. "I have a younger sister," he said, speaking around the pins in his mouth. "And a single mom. So, I had to learn a few tricks when she was growing up. Braiding hair was one of them. I know a couple other styles, but that's about it. I'm far better with make up."

She laughed, tilting her head to the other side as he pinned and plaited the other half of hair.

"It actually helps a lot, knowing how to braid well for all the wigs and whatnot. As I said, bald caps."

Her hair pinned down to her scalp, the aforementioned cap came from another pocket and he stepped around her and carefully worked it down to cover her hair.

"Yeah," he called when a knock came at the door to the trailer, a blast of cool air coming in with the new arrival.

"Hey, Jack. Heard you were doing a full work on Elsa this morning?" a short, pudgy man with a camera under one arm asked, a doughnut in his other. "Can I get some footage for the behind the scenes crap they want?"

"You'll have to ask her, I'm just the mouse to her Cinderella," he said, not taking his eyes off gluing down the cap. "And I have six prosthetic pieces to fit, paint, blend and make film ready. A beauty makeup, and making sure that GIANT wig of hers looks film ready too. So, if she's cool, you better stay out of my way."

"Costume was changing her wig I thought," the man said, taking a bite of his doughnut.

Jack froze, looking over at him. "What?"

"Yeah, I thought that was why they have to reshoot the sequence."

Jack stared at him for a long moment, looked down at Elsa before setting the small bottle of adhesive and his brush on the counter and taking two large steps out of the trailer. "Excuse me," he said as the door slammed behind him.

"Oh boy," Elsa said, pulling her sweatshirt up over her shoulders. "Someone is about to have a diva moment."

The man ate the last of his moment. "What makes you say that?"

"Because Jack was a big part in designing my whole costume, it's why he does my makeup. If someone changed the wig without him knowing about it," she shrugged. "Well, I wouldn't want to be them right now."

The man glanced down at his camera. "You know, how about I just get a before and after shot. That should be good enough for them, maybe you can do a little interview on one of the film breaks if you aren't too busy."

She gave him a smile. "That might be a good idea."

Five hours, and one severely chewed out make up effects intern, later, Jack was helping to fit the massive blue and silver wig onto Elsa. She now sat in her full costume and make-up, the alien ice princess from another world and ready to go onto set. Her skin was now a silver-blue color that he had achieved with several layers of airbrushing, followed by carefully gluing down small stones that would reflect the light of the stage. Jack and the costume designer worked around her, making sure that everything was carefully in place. With everything, she did look impressive, and she loved it. Just, not how long everything took to put on, nor the feeling of guilt that she had when she saw it all wash off in the shower that evening.

"Okay," he said, stepping back and giving her a hard look over. "I think," he paused, grabbing one of his brushes to blend in a spot of makeup a little more. "Yes. Yes, you're good. Let's go to the soundstage now. I don't know how many takes they want to do before lunch, and you know as well as I do how well this makeup holds up with wear on your hands."

She nodded, carefully getting up from her chair while he grabbed at his brushes and containers and fit them into his belt pockets before helping her to gather up the voluminous skirts of her costume. Everything had to be exaggerated for the camera, even more so for a princess.

Together they made their way across the lot, Jack scowling up at the clouded sky.

"Don't say it," she said, glancing up herself. "You don't want to jinx it."

"You got that right," he muttered, quickening his pace to get them out of the open air as a dull rumble of thunder was heard. "Shit."

She chuckled and skipped to keep up with him, the heels of her costume clicking along on the paved ground.

He stopped her when they made it inside, inspecting the makeup and everything as he scowled at the sky.

"I don't think you can control the weather," she said, closing her eyes as another brush came out to fix a spot he found.

"Would certainly make filming a lot easier if I could," he said, stepping back and shifting to look at her from several angles before nodding. "Okay. Excellent. Perfect. Let's hope that oaf of a co-star of yours can get his lines right before your makeup starts to wear."

She rolled her eyes, smiling as they turned to walk further onto the set, the director gladly meeting her as she made her way towards the scene.

The hours of takes, and retakes, set positions and changes went by quickly with the actors portraying their parts, laughing at jokes and mistakes and working their best to get everything done in a timely fashion. It was Friday after all, no one wanted to be working too late into the evening.

Jack stood well behind the line of cameras, assistants and directors with the other make up persons and set gophers waiting for something to fetch.

"Jack," one small brunette asked, grinning up at him. "We're going out to Captain's tonight, you wanna come?"

"Maybe," he said. "A Cosmo or two certainly sounds good after the week I've had. Did you hear that costume was trying to change my wig for Elsa?"

She nodded. "I think EVERYONE heard you. You didn't have to yell quite so loudly at that intern you know."

He scowled. "If you'd known how long I'd worked on that wig you'd understand."

One of the male gophers turned to look at him, a look of confusion on his face. "Cosmos? Really?"

"Shut up, they're fucking delicious," Jack said, shifting his weight on his feet and looking up at the scene being acted out ahead of them. "Damn, her make up is starting to slip," he said, and glanced down at his watch. "Well, it is about noon. Three hours isn't half bad under those lights. I need to go tell Ned, his shots are going to be worthless soon if I don't fix that."

The brunette chuckled. "Okay Jack, ever the perfectionist."

"Landed me head makeup on the lead actress, now didn't it?" he countered, shouldering his way out of their group and up to the director's assistant, turning over his shoulder to grin back at them.

"Prick," the male gopher muttered, scowling at him.

"Yes," the brunette agreed. "But a damn talented one."

An hour later, Jack leaned against his makeup counter while Elsa carefully finished her lunch with a huge sheet draped carefully over her while she ate.

"Friday night," he said, breaking the silence. "I know a bunch of people are going down to the local town, to the bar there. Captain's. Wanna go?"

She tilted her head up, catching a stray noodle from her pasta salad on her lower lip and maneuvering it into her mouth with a grin. She chuckled, looking at him sheepishly before shaking her head.

"Oh god," she said, tilting her head back. "As much as I could REALLY use a drink tonight, I'm too exhausted. Remember, hardly any sleep and 4am makeup. Thank you ever so much for the latter."

He held his hands up in mock defense. "Hey now, I go as fast as I can, you know that. At least getting you out of everything goes a hell of a lot quicker."

Her eyebrows rose in agreement and she nodded as she scraped up the remaining bits of her lunch. "You can say that again."

"Well, how about I bring some stuff to your trailer then? Couple drinks between friends, then you can pass out in your own bed whenever you're down for the night?"

She paused, considering this while she chewed.

"That, actually sounds really nice," she said, leaning forward to set her empty plate on the counter and picking up her water cup. "You don't mind, not going out?"

"What? Miss going out for overpriced drinks, large rowdy crowds and the chance that I'll get hit on by someone underage in the hopes that I'll buy them said overpriced drink? Nah, I don't think I'll miss it at all," he said, moving off the counter and pulling the sheet off of her, picking up one of her arms to examine the makeup.

"I'm surprised how well this held up," he said, turning her hand over and rubbing at the remaining paint on her palm. "Not so much here. You need to stop rubbing your hands together so much."

She sighed. "I know, I know. I try not to."

He smirked. "Okay, you done eating then? Let's get you all repainted and touched up so we can get you back in there, then we can have those drinks I was talking about."

She leaned back, closing her eyes. "What do you know how to make?"

"Cosmo," he said, testing his airbrush out again before adding in the pre made paint and beginning to touch everything up. "Couple others, but who doesn't love a cosmo."

"Amen."

Several more hours of filming passed, with another short break for another make up touch up on the set while the director impatiently watched.

"Look, unless you want to waste another day on this set shooting, let me fix this," Jack had told him. "I know what I'm doing, and this will look better in the shot if I touch it up."

Elsa had given him a large smile while Jack dabbed on blue makeup, blending it in with silver to match the existing foundation.

By 8pm, everyone more than relieved when wrap was called for the evening, the final shots meeting satisfaction.

"10 am start tomorrow," Elsa breathed as Jack helped her back to the costume department to get out of her elaborate get up. "Do you know yet what scenes we are doing? Christie hadn't found out yet."

"You know, for an assistant, yours takes forever to find things out," he said, pulling up the skirts of her costume as they stepped around a puddle. "Either that or I'm just really good at finding out. Just your normal half makeup we've been doing the rest of the week, I'll need you there at eight."

She grinned, pulling open the door to the costume building and clipping her way inside.

"All I know is, I have a date with some sweatpants and some cosmos," she said.

"Excuse you," he said, stepping behind her as she flopped down in the chair.

"And you, I could never forget you."

"You better not be saying that because you want out of that wig."

She considered. "Can't it be both?"

"Both is allowed," he agreed, working his fingers into the wig and began to loosen it carefully to pull it off her head. "I always forget how heavy this thing is."

"I fucking don't." she muttered, glowering at him. "My neck has been killing me since lunch."

He pulled the wig off, carefully setting it aside on the special form and adjusted it gently before turning back to her.

"Okay, dress time. Or de-dress time, whichever you prefer."

She laughed, her feet moving under the folds of the skirt and the clicks on the heels coming off her feet sounded, followed by a moan.

"Okay," she said, getting back out of the chair and following him awkwardly to a small changing area.

The clothes that she had worn that morning sat in one of the cubbies against the far wall, a small blue "E" denoting her bin as he worked at the corseted back of the first layer of the dress.

"I swear, I'm going to burn this thing in front of Roberta after the last day of shooting," she said, taking in a deep, full breath of air when he pulled it from around her waist.

He laughed, carefully hanging it on one of the many hangers waiting on the rack just outside the small area. He waited for a moment as she bent over and touched her toes, stretching herself out for the first time that day.

At first she would first go to the costume department, hope that someone would be able to help her get out of her costume with all of the other actors and extras that had also finished for the day and then eventually make her way over to Jack to have all of her prosthetic pieces removed so they could both enjoy the rest of the evening.

Both of them, especially impatient Jack, had gotten tired of having to wait so long and Jack had taken it on himself to help her out of her costume. No one in the costume department minded, knowing how much of a perfectionist he was about her whole look and how much he had worked with Roberta, the costume designer, to coordinate her make-up with the costume.

Her dress had four different layers, the metallic corset, the high-cut brocade over dress, a thin and floaty chiffon middle layer and a solid, under dress. And layer by layer, he helped her out of the costume, chuckling every time that he did so at the immense relief that passed over her face.

With the last dress layer off, she waved her hand at him. "Go take those away while I get dressed, I really want that drink now."

He grinned at her, turning to put the last layer carefully on the hanger and gathered the rest to take them to the main wardrobe racks.

When he returned, she was sitting in her chair again, picking at the edge of one of her prosthetic pieces.

"Stop that," he said, swatting at her hands. "Come on, before you ruin that and I have to run another one. Which is NOT what I'd like to do tomorrow, thank you."

She forced her hands down to her sides, walking beside him as they walked back to the makeup trailer. She giggled, holding out her arms.

"What?"

"I was just thinking, it would be really funny if I went out into the town still in all of this blue and silver makeup," she said, turning her arms over. "I could really have some fun with people."

He grinned. "Knew there was a reason I liked you. Though, they would have a legitimate reason to ask you why you are so blue."

She laughed harder, her head tilting back as he smiled along beside her.

Another hour went by as Jack carefully went around each of the pieces he had glued down that morning to remove them, setting each one aside carefully before using a wet cloth to wash at the layers of paint on her arms and upper torso. Next came her face, as he worked at the piece that was glued down over the top of her forehead and came down the sides of her face, then the bald cap.

Wiping at her face with makeup remover, she sighed again. "It feels amazing to get everything off at the end of the day," she said, tilting her neck from one side to the next. "Even better will be after a nice hot shower."

"I was going to come over in about an hour for those drinks," he said, dousing another wad of cotton in remover and rubbing it over her face. "That sound good? I need to clean up everything myself."

"Yeah, that sounds fine. You need money for the drinks?"

"Nah," he said. "We lowly makeup folk make enough for drinks now and then."

She laughed. "I didn't mean it like that and you know it."

He grinned, leaning back. "Okay, off you go. I'll see you in about an hour."

Nearly two hours later, he knocked on the door to her trailer, giving her an apologetic smile when she answered.

"I was starting to think you weren't coming," she said, holding the door open for him.

"Sorry," he said, stepping up inside with the plastic grocery bags containing liquor, mixers and snacks in his hands. "Clean up took a little longer than expected, the drive in took a little longer than expected, then the store was a little busier than expected and so, I'm late."

He set everything down on the same table and shrugged. "But, better late than never, right?"

She nodded. "I ordered a pizza, should be here anytime."

"Awesome," he said, turning to start unpacking the bags. "I hope you have ice. If not I'm going to go raid the mess hall."

"I do," she said, walking over to the small freezer behind him. "Likely not much though."

"I'll just have to make it count," he said, pulling a large bottle of vodka out of one bag and setting it on the table with a thud.

She looked at the bottle, and then up at him. "How much are you planning on having?"

He chuckled. "It was cheaper to get the big boy. We will just have to have another drink night."

Another knock came at the door.

"Oooh, that will be the pizza," she said, turning and hopping back towards the small bedroom area for a moment before hopping back towards the door and opening it, greeting the pizza man.

Jack crumbled the bags together, tossing them into the sink and turned around to pull the small container of ice from the freezer. He twisted the top off the shaker he'd bought and dumped in ice, the twisted off the tops to the vodka, triple sec, cranberry juice and lime juice, eyeballing all of the measurements as he poured into the shaker before refitting the top back on, securing it and shaking it vigorously.

She slid the pizza onto the counter next to them, paused as she looked at the opened bottles of liquor now on the table and then up at him. He grinned at her as he shook. She glanced back at the bottles, noticing the amount that was gone from each.

"How much exactly did you put in there?"

"Psh," he said. "Don't be a wimp."

"I'm more thinking about tomorrow," she said, feeling a little nervous.

"You get to sleep in until almost 8, and you practically fall asleep in the chair every morning anyways," he said, setting the shaker down, unsealing the top and pouring the two drinks into the large plastic cocktail glasses he'd also purchased.

"You thought of everything, didn't you?" she asked, taking the offered glass from him when he held it out to her.

"Of course," he said. "I'm detail-oriented, if you hadn't figured that one out already."

He took a large gulp of his pink colored concoction, nodding his approval while she cautiously sipped hers. Her eyebrows rose up, coughing a little as she swallowed.

"Goodness that is strong," she said.

"You wuss," he said, scooping up the pizza box and turning to head towards the small seating area behind them. "Come on, got any good movies?"

"Not really."

He turned at her, eyebrows furrowed. "An actress that doesn't watch movies?"

She shrugged, taking another cautious sip of her drink.

"I'm weird I guess," she said, grabbing a bag of chips that he had brought as she followed him. "I read mostly in my freetime."

"I guess I'll just have to keep you entertained with my charming demeanor and pleasant conversation."

She snorted.

"Please, you've asked more questions about me in the last months from me sitting in your chair, you could write a book on me," she said, setting her drink down and tearing off a slice of the pizza. "Not that you'd make much, mind. You'd need me to do something rather scandalous for the gossip rags to be interested."

"I could lie," he suggested, take a large bite himself. "That would make life more interesting for you."

"Please don't," she said, giving him an amused look. "I rather like being known as a fairly boring actress."

He smirked, taking another sip of his drink.

"Fine, fine. Well, if you feel that things have been so unfair then, fire away."

"Fire away what?"

"Ask me, whatever," he said, flipping his hand around. "I don't care."

She thought for a moment, chewing on her bite of pizza. "You said today you have a sister? And grew up with your mom?"

He nodded. "Yep. Younger sister, I helped her get ready for school when I was younger a lot. And, she always wanted to have her hair braided and it was usually after our mom had left for work," he shrugged. "So I learned how. Kinda got into the whole make up, creature and special effects thing from being REALLY into Halloween every year. I'd dress the both of us up, I got pretty good at doing neat make ups, fake blood and all that. Course, then she got older and wanted to start being a princess and all that."

He took another bite of pizza. "I'm a sucker when it comes to my sister. But, turns out I just got pretty good at everything, so I kept going and going with it. And," he used one hand to gesture to her. "Here I am."

She grinned at him, taking a sip of her drink. "That's really sweet of you. What does your mom think of you being a makeup artist and everything?"

He smirked, chuckling a little bit. "She thought it was a little odd at first, probably was a little worried when I was growing up, but she's happy for me. She's glad I'm making good money doing something I like."

"And, your dad?" she asked cautiously. "Sorry if that's too much."

He shook his head, eating another bite. "Nah. Not much to tell. Bastard skipped town shortly after my sister was born, haven't heard from him since. Not really all that interested in finding him either."

She nodded.

"You know, one thing I've been wondering," he said, picking up his drink and taking a sip. "Is that you talk all the time about your parents and your sister back home, your sister more than anything. Which, I can certainly sympathize with. But I never hear you talk about anyone else."

She smirked, blowing air out of her nose as she looked down at her lap.

"Bad topic?" he guessed, watching her.

"No, no," she said, looking up at him and shaking her head. "Just, not much to tell. Couple of short relationships here and there as I was getting my career going, a fellow actor and a couple of old schoolmates but that is really about it for boyfriends."

"That's unfortunate," he said, sipping his drink again.

"What about you, any boyfriends?"

He nearly choked on his drink, his eyes widening in shocked horror as he looked at her. He coughed on his sip, managing to put his drink down as rotated from staring at her and gasping for air.

"Wh-what?" he exclaimed.

She blinked at him, watching the scene in confusion. "Do you have a boyfriend?" she repeated.

He stared at her for a long moment, his mouth moving silently.

"I'm not gay!"

It was her turned to be shocked now. "What?"

He shook his head, his arms moving to emphasize his point. "Not sure how else to say that. Not gay."

"But, but," she stammered, trying to figure out where this particular conversation had gone wrong. "You like cosmos."

"SO? What's wrong with a fucking cosmo? Have you tasted beer? It's nasty."

"And you can do my make-up better than I can do my make-up."

"It's my fucking job! And I just told you why."

"Oh my," she said, looking down at her drink now and flushing red with embarrassment.

"Yeah oh my!" he said, staring at her. "Fucking hell, you thought I was GAY?"

"Well," she said, looking up at him. "Maybe, yes."

He leaned back on the couch, covering his eyes with his arm and groaned. "This is not happening to me."

They were silent in a long awkward pause for several beats, Elsa watching him as she thought back on their interactions.

She gasped, face reddening even more.

"Now what?" he asked, not moving his arm.

"You've seen me naked."

"Yep."

"On more than one occasion."

He moved his arm to look at her. "And how does this suddenly become a horrible thing now that you know I'm straight? I wasn't ogling you, I was getting you ready for set. I'm not a pig."

"But-"

He sighed. "Look. Would you stop trying to get all embarrassed over things that happen on set? I'm a professional, and I take pride in that. YOU aren't the one who has been flirting with someone who thinks you're gay."

This made her stop and look at him with wide eyes. "Flirting?"

He groaned again. "God, just take me now. Please," he rubbed his hands over his face. "Yes, you nitwit. Though I guess that's all been a waste, since you've thought I've had the hots for your co-star rather than you."

He stood up, shuffling past her and headed for the door.

"Where are you going?"

"To my place," he said. "So I can go be hella embarrassed about all of this alone. I'll, I'll see you in the morning."

She stared at the door as it closed behind him, thinking about everything that had just happened in the short period of time and glanced back down at her drink.

"Not gay," she said aloud, a note of astonishment still in her voice.

8 months later

"Will you get in here so I can finish getting you ready?" Jack asked, stepping out of the hotel suite bathroom they shared, his tie hanging loose around his neck and his white dress shirt unbuttoned.

"I still don't know which one I want to wear," Elsa replied, holding up two dresses against her. One was strapless, dark emerald green and floor length, the other was pale blue with a full skirt and a lace turtleneck top with no sleeves.

"The green one," he said. "I've put too much damn blue on you this year. Now get in here so I can get you ready or you'll be late for your own red carpet."

"Okay," she said, carefully laying them down on the bed and hurrying into the bathroom in her undergarments.

She paused, looking up at him as she noticed the matching deep emerald tie draped around his neck.

She opened her mouth, preparing to say something.

"Oh please," he said, turning her and dabbing lotion on her face. "You're much more predictable than you think."

She frowned.

"To me," he amended.

The frown loosened a little and he smirked at her, rubbing the bits of lotion in before turning to grab at more make-up with a practiced eye.

"Should have let me bring my airbrush," he murmured. "Would have made this easier."

She rolled her eyes. "And you would have sat with it in your lap on the plane. I'll look just fine in this, and you know it."

"Well I didn't say you wouldn't, I just said the airbrush would be easier."

She stuck her tongue out at him, he kissed her.

"Careful now," he said, continuing to work. "Or we'll be late to the show."

"There is such a thing as fashionably late," she said, smiling slyly up at him.

"Woman," he said, pausing to grin at her. "You'll be the death of me. I love it."


End file.
